Parameter loader for ultrasound probe and related apparatus and methods

ABSTRACT

Programmable ultrasound probes and methods of operation are described. The ultrasound probe may include memory storing parameter data and may also include a parameter loader which loads the parameter data into programmable circuitry of the ultrasound probe. In some instances, the ultrasound probe may include circuitry grouped into modules which may be repeatable and which may be coupled together to allow data to be exchanged between the modules.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a National Stage Application of PCT/US2015/054422,filed Oct. 7, 2015, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) ofU.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/061,613 filed Oct. 8,2014, and entitled “PARAMETER LOADER FOR ULTRASOUND PROBE AND RELATEDAPPARATUS AND METHODS,” both of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND Field

The present application relates to an architecture and methods forcontrolling a programmable ultrasound probe.

Related Art

Ultrasound imaging systems typically include an ultrasound probeconnected to a host by an analog cable. The ultrasound probe iscontrolled by the host to emit and receive ultrasound signals. Thereceived ultrasound signals are processed to generate an ultrasoundimage.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Aspects of the present application relate to a parameter loader for anultrasound probe, as well as to related apparatus and methods. Theultrasound probe may include programmable digital circuitry allowing forvarious operating characteristics of the ultrasound probe to bespecified one or more times during operation. For example, digitalcircuitry governing transmit and/or receive operations of the ultrasoundprobe may be programmed to select characteristics of the waveformsgenerated, characteristics of signal delays, or characteristics ofdigital processing performed on received ultrasound signals. In at leastsome embodiments, a parameter loader is included in the ultrasound probeand is used to store parameter data for programming the digitalcircuitry of the ultrasound probe as well as to load the parameter datainto the digital circuitry.

In some embodiments, the programmable circuitry of the ultrasound probeis arranged into like modules coupled together to allow for sharing ofparameter data. The parameter loader may provide the parameter data toone or more of the ultrasound modules, which may act upon the parameterdata and/or pass the parameter data to other ultrasound modules of theultrasound probe. Such a configuration may facilitate scaling of theultrasound probe to larger numbers of modules, may simplify design ofthe circuitry of the ultrasound probe by focusing the design at amodular level rather than a system level, may provide for efficientcommunication of data between circuitry of the ultrasound probe, and mayreduce the area occupied by the circuitry compared to alternativeapproaches.

Various aspects of the present application provide methods of operatingan ultrasound probe and a parameter loader of the ultrasound probe toreduce the amount of parameter data stored on the ultrasound probe andloaded into the programmable digital circuitry of the ultrasound probe.For instance, redundancies in parameter data among multiple circuitcomponents may be exploited to reduce the data storage and transmissionrequirements of the ultrasound probe. The redundancies may occur withina single excitation event, for example when multiple circuit componentsuse the same parameter values during the excitation event, and/or acrossmultiple excitation events.

According to an aspect of the present application, an apparatus isdescribed, comprising an ultrasound probe that comprises a plurality ofmodules including a first module and a second module. Each of the firstand second modules comprises transmit circuitry, at least one ultrasoundelement, and receive circuitry. The first module and second module arecoupled to each other and configured to pass parameter data from thefirst module to the second module.

According to an aspect of the present application an apparatus isprovided, comprising an ultrasound probe that comprises programmablecircuitry and a memory coupled to the programmable circuitry andconfigured to store parameter data.

According to an aspect of the present application, a method of providingdata to an ultrasound probe is described. The ultrasound probe comprisesa plurality of addressable ultrasound modules linked in a daisy-chainconfiguration. The method comprises creating a packet including both anaddress of a first ultrasound module of the plurality of addressableultrasound modules and data, and sending the packet to the plurality ofaddressable ultrasound modules sequentially.

According to an aspect of the present application, a method of providingdata to an ultrasound probe is provided, the probe comprising aplurality of addressable ultrasound modules linked in a daisy-chainconfiguration. The method comprises creating a packet, and sending thepacket to the plurality of addressable ultrasound modules sequentially.

According to an aspect of the present application, a method isdescribed, comprising performing a first acquisition with an ultrasoundprobe comprising setting digital values for a first ultrasound module ofa plurality of ultrasound modules of the ultrasound probe. The methodfurther comprises performing a second acquisition with the ultrasoundprobe, the second acquisition comprising setting, for a secondultrasound module of the plurality of ultrasound modules, the digitalvalues set for the first ultrasound module during the first acquisition.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Various aspects and embodiments of the application will be describedwith reference to the following figures. It should be appreciated thatthe figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. Items appearing inmultiple figures are indicated by the same reference number in all thefigures in which they appear.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example of an ultrasound probe which may includea parameter loader and which may implement aspects described herein.

FIG. 1B illustrates a variation of the ultrasound probe of FIG. 1A inwhich the components of the ultrasound probe are separated amongmultiple substrates.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an ultrasound probe coupled to a host.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an ultrasound probe having a pluralityof like ultrasound modules coupled together and including programmablecircuitry.

FIG. 4 illustrates a number of the ultrasound modules of the ultrasoundprobe of FIG. 3 in greater detail and coupled in a daisy-chainconfiguration.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a control circuit of an ultrasoundprobe including a parameter loader configured to load parameter datainto programmable circuitry of the ultrasound probe.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of an ultrasound probe transmit channelincluding programmable circuitry which may be programmed by a parameterloader as described in connection with FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of an ultrasound probe receive channelincluding programmable circuitry which may be programmed by a parameterloader as described in connection with FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present application are directed to an ultrasound probeparameter loader and methods for loading parameter data onto aprogrammable ultrasound probe and for communicating the parameter databetween components of the ultrasound probe. These aspects arise from,but are not limited by, a desire to provide a programmable ultrasoundprobe capable of performing a variety of complex imaging functions whilebeing connectable to a host via a commercially-available digitalconnection. Compared to some ultrasound systems which place most, if notall, control, transmit, and receive circuitry in the host, it isdesirable to have an ultrasound probe that contains the control,transmit, and receive circuitry, or at least some of those components.Including such components on the ultrasound probe facilitates theability to connect the probe to a variety of hosts (for example, alaptop computer or personal digital assistant (PDA)) via a relativelysimple, digital connection, differing from the complex and costly analogcables typically used to connect conventional ultrasound probes to ahost. This, in turn, increases accessibility of ultrasound technologybeyond that afforded by the relatively complex and costly conventionalsystems.

To achieve a versatile ultrasound probe capable of performing medicallyrelevant ultrasound imaging in terms of, for example, supportingmultiple ultrasound imaging modes with high resolution and frame rates,the probe may be configured with programmable circuitry. Theprogrammable circuitry may include control, transmit, and/or receivecircuitry, and the programmable nature may afford control over operatingfeatures such as the imaging mode used and the types of processingperformed on ultrasound signals received by the ultrasound probe. Whilesuch programmability is beneficial in terms of the capabilities providedto the ultrasound probe, a potential problem also arises in terms of theneed to provide the programming data to the ultrasound probe at a timeand in a manner which does not negatively impact performance, and whichaccounts for the types of connections described previously for allowingconnection of the ultrasound probe to a variety of hosts.

While one approach for providing such data to a programmable ultrasoundprobe is to send each piece of data from the host to the ultrasoundprobe whenever needed, Applicant has appreciated that such a brute forcetechnique is impractical, for instance because it will not scale asultrasound probes increase in the number of transducing elements andresolution. Thus, aspects of the present application provide structuresand methods which facilitate intelligent and efficient loading ofparameter data onto an ultrasound probe, as well as providing forefficient communication of the parameter data on the ultrasound probe.

According to an aspect of the present application, an ultrasound probeincludes programmable circuitry and a memory which stores parameter datafor programming the programmable circuitry of the ultrasound probe. Theparameter data stored in the memory of the ultrasound probe mayrepresent all the data needed to program the programmable circuitry ofthe ultrasound probe in some embodiments, but in other embodiments thememory of the ultrasound probe stores only a subset of the parameterdata needed and additional parameter data may be stored in a separatememory, such as in a host. A parameter loader is also included in theultrasound probe in some embodiments, and operates to load the parameterdata from the memory of the ultrasound probe into the programmablecircuitry.

According to an aspect of the present application, parameter data isloaded onto an ultrasound probe and re-used for multiple acquisitionevents. Applicant has appreciated that certain parameter data used toprogram the programmable circuitry of an ultrasound probe may be commonto multiple imaging modes and acquisitions, and thus that efficientoperation of the ultrasound probe may be facilitated by storing certainparameter data on the ultrasound probe and re-using it in multipleimaging modes or acquisitions, rather than loading the same parameterdata onto the ultrasound probe repeatedly. In this manner, the amount ofdata required to be sent from a host to the ultrasound probe may bereduced, which may contribute to achieving desirable frame rates,reducing data storage requirements, and increasing communicationefficiency with a host, among other operating characteristics.

According to an aspect of the present application, the circuitry of aprogrammable ultrasound probe is grouped into repeatable modules coupledtogether in a manner which facilitates data communication between themodules. According to an aspect of the application, the repeatablemodules are arranged in an array. For example, the ultrasound modulesmay be coupled in a daisy-chain configuration (or ring network) and mayoperate to pass data from one ultrasound module to the next, although itshould be appreciated that a daisy-chain configuration is only onenon-limiting example of a linear array configuration, and that otherarray configurations may be used. The modules may be repeatable in thatthey may be identical or at least substantially the same. The circuitryof the modules may include control circuitry, transmit circuitry and/orreceive circuitry. Use of repeatable circuitry modules may facilitatescaling of the ultrasound probe (by adding more identical orsubstantially identical modules) and may also increase efficientcommunication of data between circuitry, as described in greater detailbelow.

According to an aspect of the present application, a programmableultrasound probe is controlled using data packets and data packet-basedcommunication techniques. In some embodiments, the ultrasound probeincludes circuitry grouped into addressable modules which may include,for example, transmit and receive circuitry. Packets of data may be sentto the ultrasound modules and may include an address identifying one ormore of the ultrasound modules. The ultrasound module(s) having theaddress identified by the packet(s) may operate on such packet(s) whilethose ultrasound modules not matching the address of the packet(s) maypass the packet(s) to another ultrasound module.

In some embodiments the ultrasound probe is an ultrasound on a chipprobe incorporating one or more of the aspects described above. Theultrasound probe may include ultrasonic transducers and programmablecircuitry, such as programmable transmit and/or receive circuitry. Theprogrammable circuitry of the ultrasound probe may be included on thesame substrate as the ultrasonic transducers in some embodiments, or ona separate substrate in alternative embodiments.

Aspects of the present application relate to manufacturing ultrasoundprobes and circuitry of the types described herein. For example,manufacturing an ultrasound probe may comprise forming a parameterloader and memory on the ultrasound probe. The parameter loader andmemory may be formed on a same substrate as a plurality of ultrasonictransducers of the ultrasound probe, or may be formed on separatesubstrates in some embodiments.

The aspects and embodiments described above, as well as additionalaspects and embodiments, are described further below. These aspectsand/or embodiments may be used individually, all together, or in anycombination of two or more, as the application is not limited in thisrespect.

To provide context and facilitate explanation of the various aspects ofthe present application, a specific example of an ultrasound probe isnow described together with specific examples of parameters which may beapplicable in such a probe. Yet, it should be appreciated that aspectsof the present application apply more broadly than the specificultrasound probe and ultrasound parameters now described.

Referring to FIG. 1A, the ultrasound probe 100 includes one or moretransducer arrangements (e.g., arrays) 102 of ultrasonic transducers,transmit (TX) circuitry 104, receive (RX) circuitry 106, a timing andcontrol circuit 108, a signal conditioning/processing circuit 110,and/or a power management circuit 118 receiving ground (GND) and voltagereference (V_(IN)) signals. The ultrasound probe 100 may include aparameter loader 107 for loading parameters into the other circuitry ofthe ultrasound probe, as will be described in greater detail below withrespect to FIG. 5. The parameter loader 107 may be part of the timingand control circuit 108, or may be separate in other embodiments. Ingeneral, the timing and control circuit 108 may include suitablecircuitry for controlling operation of the transmit circuitry 104 andreceive circuitry 106. Optionally, a high intensity focused ultrasound(HIFU) controller 120 may be included if the ultrasound probe 100 is tobe used to provide HIFU.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1A, all of the illustrated componentsare formed on a single semiconductor die (or substrate or chip) 112, andthus the illustrated embodiment is an example of an ultrasound on a chipdevice. However, not all embodiments are limited in this respect. Inaddition, although the illustrated example shows both TX circuitry 104and RX circuitry 106, in alternative embodiments only TX circuitry oronly RX circuitry may be employed. For example, such embodiments may beemployed in a circumstance in which the ultrasound probe is operated asa transmission-only device to transmit acoustic signals or areception-only device used to receive acoustic signals that have beentransmitted through or reflected by a subject being ultrasonicallyimaged, respectively.

The ultrasound probe 100 further includes a serial output port 114 tooutput data serially to a host. The ultrasound probe 100 may alsoinclude a clock input port 116 to receive and provide a clock signal CLKto the timing and control circuit 108.

FIG. 1B illustrates an embodiment in which the components of theultrasound probe are divided among two substrates as an alternative tothe configuration of FIG. 1A. As shown, the ultrasound probe 122includes a second substrate 124 on which an application specificintegrated circuitry (ASIC) 126 is disposed or formed. An example of theASIC 126 is described further below in connection with FIG. 5 and may,for example, include the parameter loader 107. Control data includingparameter data may be sent by the ASIC 126 to the components on thesemiconductor die 112 and imaging data, as an example, may be sent fromthe signal conditioning/processing circuitry 110 to the ASIC 126. Insome embodiments, an optional buffer memory 140 is included on thesemiconductor die 112 and the imaging data passes through the buffermemory 140 on its way to the ASIC 126.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the manner in which an ultrasound probemay connect to a host, as well as an example of the host. The ultrasoundprobe 100 is shown for purposes of illustration as being used toinvestigate a subject 202. The ultrasound probe 100 may be coupled tothe host 204 via a connection 205, which in the illustrated example is awired connection and which may connect to the serial output port 114 andclock input port 116 of the ultrasound probe 100 (shown in FIG. 1A). Theconnection 205 may be a digital connection, for example being of a typecommonly used with commercial digital electronics, such as a universalserial bus (USB) cable, Thunderbolt, or FireWire. In some embodiments,the connection 205 may be wireless, for example being a Bluetooth®connection, although alternative wireless connections may be used forshort and/or long range communication. The host 204 may be a computer(e.g., a laptop computer as shown or a desktop computer), a personaldigital assistant, a smartphone, a tablet, or other computing device,and may include the display screen 206 on which ultrasound images may bedisplayed.

As described previously, an ultrasound probe according to an aspect ofthe present application includes circuitry arranged in a modularconfiguration. An example is illustrated in FIG. 3, representing anon-limiting implementation of the ultrasound probe 100 of FIG. 1A.

The ultrasound probe 300 includes a plurality of ultrasound modules 302arranged in two rows (or columns, depending on orientation). In thisnon-limiting example, there are 72 such ultrasound modules per row,giving a total of 144 such ultrasound modules 302 for the ultrasoundprobe 300. In this example, the ultrasound modules are identical to eachother, each including transmit circuitry, ultrasound transducers, andreceive circuitry. In the illustrated non-limiting example, theultrasound modules 302 each include two columns of 32 ultrasoundelements 308 for a total of 64 ultrasound elements 308 per ultrasoundmodule 302 as shown in the inset of FIG. 3, and accordingly are referredto herein as 2×32 modules. However, it should be appreciated that theaspects of the present application are not limited to ultrasound moduleshaving any particular number of ultrasound elements, and that a 2×32module is an example described for purposes of illustration.

The ultrasound modules 302 of each row are coupled such that data (e.g.,parameter data) may be transferred from one ultrasound module 302 to aneighboring ultrasound module 302. As described further below inconnection with FIG. 4, the coupling may be a daisy-chain configuration(a ring network), although alternatives are possible, such asalternative array configurations. Data 304, such as the parameter datadescribed further below in connection with FIG. 5, is provided to thefirst ultrasound module 302 of each row of the ultrasound modules 302and a global clock signal 306 is provided to all the ultrasound modules302. The global clock signal may be any suitable clock frequency, anon-limiting example of which is 200 MHz. Data out 307 is provided bythe ultrasound modules 302, and may represent collected raw data orprocessed imaging data in some embodiments.

As previously described, an ultrasound module may comprise circuitry inaddition to one or more ultrasonic transducers. In some embodiments, anultrasound module 302 may comprise one or more waveform generators(e.g., two waveform generators, four waveform generators, etc.),encoding circuitry, delay mesh circuitry, and/or decoding circuitry.These examples of circuitry that may be part of an ultrasound module 302are illustrative and are not limiting, as an ultrasound module mayadditionally or alternatively comprise any other suitable circuitry.

Ultrasound element 308 may include one or more ultrasonic transducers310 (also referred to herein as “transducer cells”). Stated differently,ultrasonic transducers 310 may be grouped together to form ultrasoundelements 308. In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 3, each ultrasoundelement 308 comprises 16 ultrasonic transducers 310 arranged as atwo-dimensional array having four rows and four columns. However, itshould be appreciated that an ultrasound element 308 may comprise anysuitable number of ultrasonic transducers (e.g., one, at least two, atleast four, at least 16, at least 25, at least 36, at least 49, at least64, at least 81, at least 100, between one and 200, more than 200,thousands, etc.).

The ultrasonic transducers 310 may be any suitable type of ultrasonictransducers, including capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers(CMUTs) or piezoelectric transducers. CMUTs may be used if theultrasound probe is to include integrated circuitry and ultrasonictransducers.

While the ultrasound probe 300 includes 144 modules, it should beappreciated that any suitable number of ultrasound modules may beincluded (e.g., at least two modules, at least ten modules, at least 100modules, at least 1000 modules, at least 5000 modules, at least 10,000modules, at least 25,000 modules, at least 50,000 modules, at least100,000 modules, at least 250,000 modules, at least 500,000 modules,between two and a million modules, etc.). Some of the benefits providedby aspects of the present application are more readily realized as thenumber of ultrasound modules increases.

FIG. 4 illustrates in greater detail the connection between ultrasoundmodules 302 of the ultrasound probe 300, focusing on the ultrasoundmodules 302 from a single row of the ultrasound probe 300. To simplifydiscussion, the modules 302 are identified as module 72, module 71 . . .module 1. Each ultrasound module 302 includes a shift register 402, amultiplexer 404, and a decoder 406 coupled to the additional circuitryand ultrasound elements 408 of the ultrasound module 302. As shown, theoutput of the multiplexer 404 of one ultrasound module 302 (e.g., module72) is coupled to the input of the shift register 402 of the neighboringultrasound module 302 (e.g., module 71). In this manner, the ultrasoundmodules 302 are arranged in a daisy-chain to allow data to propagatefrom one ultrasound module to another (e.g., from module 72 to module71), although other configurations such as other array configurationsmay be used.

In operation, the data 304 is provided to a first ultrasound module 302(e.g., module 72 in this non-limiting example) and, in some scenarios,is then passed from the first ultrasound module 302 to subsequentultrasound modules in the daisy-chain, as described further below. Forexample, the data 304 may be provided initially to module 72, frommodule 72 to module 71, from module 71 to module 70 (not shown),continuing in this manner down to module 1. According to an aspect ofthe present application packet-based communication in which data isgrouped into packets is implemented by the ultrasound probe. Thus thedata 304 may be arranged in packets provided to the ultrasound modules302. The packets may include an address field, an operation code, and adata field, of any suitable lengths. The packets may include data (e.g.,in the data field) related to one or more parameters of operation of theultrasound probe. In some embodiments, packets specific to a particulartype of parameter may be generated, while in other embodiments packetsgrouping together values of two or more parameters may be generated, forexample to group together parameters that relate to a common function(e.g., programming a waveform generator). The latter approach mayfacilitate efficient communication and simplify the system by notrequiring a separate type of packet for each and every parameter type,particularly when the number of controllable parameters is large.

Expanding on the general operation of the ultrasound modules 302described above, the data 304 may be provided to a first ultrasoundmodule 302 (e.g., module 72) of the ultrasound probe. One of threeoperations may then occur. The ultrasound module 302 may operate on thedata packet and not pass the packet on to subsequent modules. Thisoccurs when the data packet with the data 304 is intended only for thefirst ultrasound module. Alternatively, the first ultrasound module(e.g., module 72) may pass the data packet on to a subsequent ultrasoundmodule 302 (e.g., module 71) in the daisy-chain without modification.This occurs when the data packet is not intended for the firstultrasound module. As a further option, the first ultrasound module 302(e.g., module 72) may operate on the data packet, modify it, and thenpass it on to a subsequent ultrasound module (e.g., module 71). Thereare multiple reasons why this may occur, but two examples are describednow for illustration.

In some embodiments, the ultrasound modules 302 may have their addressesprogrammed by a suitable data packet. For example, a data packet may besent to a first ultrasound module 302 (e.g., module 72) of theultrasound probe instructing that ultrasound module 302 to set itsaddress to a particular value. The first ultrasound module 302 (e.g.,module 72) may do so, but may then modify the data packet by changingthe address (e.g., decrementing the address) and sending the modifieddata packet to the next ultrasound module 302 in the chain (e.g., module71). The next ultrasound module 302 (e.g., module 71) may receive themodified data packet, set its address according to the (decremented)address specified in the modified data packet, modify the address of thedata packet, and send the further modified data packet to the nextultrasound module 302 (e.g., module 70, not shown). This process mayproceed until all the ultrasound modules 302 have their addresses set.

As a second example, in some embodiments the value of a given parametermay differ by ultrasound module 302 according to a particular function.For example, a delay value of a circuit component of the ultrasoundmodules 302 may differ according to a given function, such as a linearlyincreasing function. Although one manner of operation of the ultrasoundprobe is to send separate data packets with the differing delay valuesand an appropriate ultrasound module address for each data packet, analternative is to send an initial data packet to a first ultrasoundmodule 302 (e.g., module 72) of the ultrasound probe and have thatultrasound module operate on the data packet but also modify the datapacket according to the function (e.g., the linearly increasingfunction) before sending the modified data packet to the next ultrasoundmodule 302 in the chain (e.g., module 71).

The scenarios in which an ultrasound module 302 operates on a datapacket but also modifies the data packet before sending it to asubsequent ultrasound module may be implemented by including suitablecircuitry in the circuitry and ultrasound elements 408 of the ultrasoundmodules 302. For example, suitable digital logic may be included toperform the function(s).

The packets of data 304 may be provided to the ultrasound modules 302via the respective shift register 402 of each ultrasound module 302. Thedecoder 406 of the ultrasound module 302 receiving the packet decodesthe address from the packet and determines whether the address of thepacket matches (or otherwise implicates) that specific ultrasound module302. For example, the decoder 406 of the module 72 decodes the addressof a received packet and determines whether the address identifiesmodule 72. If so, then the data is provided to the circuitry andultrasound elements 408 of that ultrasound module 302, which operatebased on the data and provide resulting output data 409 from themultiplexer 404 of the ultrasound module 302. If, on the other hand, theaddress of the packet of data 304 does not implicate that specificultrasound module 302 which received the packet as determined by thedecoder 406 of that ultrasound module, then the data is shifted out ofthe shift register 402 directly to the multiplexer 404 and passed fromthe multiplexer 404 to the following ultrasound module 302 without thecircuitry and ultrasound elements 408 of that particular ultrasoundmodule acting on that data. For example, the module 72 may determinethat a packet of data is not intended for module 72, and thus mayprovide the packet to the shift register of module 71 without acting onit. In this manner, the ultrasound modules 302 may perform apass-through function in some situations depending on a control signal410 provided by the decoder 406 to the multiplexer 404 of a givenultrasound module.

The modular nature of the ultrasound probe illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4simplifies scaling of the device in that similar or identical ultrasoundmodules 302 may be added to the daisy-chain without a need to re-designthe majority of the signaling architecture. That is, the constructionand signaling lines of ultrasound module 302 are the same for all theultrasound modules, and thus may be designed at the ultrasound modulelevel. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, only the clock signal 306 isprovided separately (in parallel) to all the ultrasound modules 302 andthus is designed at the system level.

The ultrasound modules 302 (e.g., module 72, module 71 . . . module 1)may be identical even though they have different addresses in someembodiments to support address-based communication as described above.For example, in some embodiments, the address of an ultrasound module302 is not hardwired into the circuitry but rather used to set acomparator register of the ultrasound module 302 which then compares theset address to the address in a received data packet to determinewhether the data packet is addressed for that particular ultrasoundmodule.

The use of a modular construction like that shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 alsoprovides the benefit of simple verification. That is, verifying accurateoperation of the ultrasound probe may be done at the module level ratherthan at the system level for most, if not all, functions of theultrasound probe.

Also, it should be appreciated that the construction of ultrasoundmodules 302 allows for using the same shift register for input andoutput of data. Thus, more complex designs may be avoided.

Various structures may be used to load parameter data into programmablecircuitry of an ultrasound probe. According to one aspect, dedicatedhardware may be used. The hardware may be part of the ultrasound probein at least some embodiments. For example, as described previously, anaspect of the present application provides an ultrasound probe having aparameter loader and a memory which stores parameter data forprogramming the programmable circuitry of the ultrasound probe, such asthe programmable circuitry of ultrasound modules 302 describedpreviously. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of circuitry which may be partof the ultrasound probe and which may include both a memory storing theparameter data as well as a parameter loader configured to controlloading of the parameter data into the programmable circuitry. FIG. 5represents an example in which the parameter loader and memory are partof an ASIC separate from the ultrasonic transducer array of theultrasound probe, and thus represents a non-limiting example of animplementation of the ASIC 126 of FIG. 1B. However, it should beappreciated that the hardware performing the parameter loading functionsmay not be part of an ASIC in some embodiments. For example, a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA), or separate host may be used in someembodiments, among other examples.

The ASIC 500 of FIG. 5 includes a processor 502, a memory 503 for theprocessor 502, parameter loader 504 with memory 506, a hostcommunication module 508 communicating (sending and receiving) signals509 with a host (not shown), and an ultrasound element communicationmodule 510. Coupled between the parameter loader 504 and the ultrasoundelement communication module 510 is a timing sequencer 514 having amultiplexer 516. The parameter loader 504 is configured as an input tothe multiplexer 516, together with a trigger packet generator 518 andread packet generator 520. In this manner, the timing sequencer 514 canselect whether to send parameter data, a trigger packet, or a readpacket to the ultrasound element communication module 510 to betransferred to the ultrasound element chip (e.g., to the semiconductordie 112 in FIG. 1B). Data output by the ultrasound element chip andreceived by the ASIC 500 at ultrasound element communication module 510may optionally be provided to a data p adder 530 and then to the hostcommunication module 508 for communication to the host.

The ASIC 500 further comprises a sequence memory 512 storing sequencesof acquisitions which may be performed and sequence processing unitqueues 532 which stores information identifying which sequences in thesequence memory 512 are to be performed by the ultrasound probe. TheASIC 500 may also include a phase-locked loop (PLL) 522 which receives aclock input signal CLOCK and outputs a clock signal provided to variouscomponents of the ASIC 500. A reset control circuit 528 is included tocontrol reset of the processor 502, and may be governed by a resetsignal RESET provided over a bus 524. Communication among components ofthe ASIC 500 may be carried out over buses 524 and 526.

The processor 502 controls the functionality of the ASIC 500, includingthe operation of the parameter loader 504. To perform a desired imagingmode, a sequence of one or more acquisitions, stored in the sequencememory 512 and queued by the sequence processing unit queues 532, isperformed. The acquisitions in turn may each specify the performance ofone or more load records (also referred to herein simply as “loads”).The load records include pointers that reference the parameter datastored in the memory 506 of the parameter loader 504. The processor 502configures and starts the parameter loader 504. Depending on the type ofacquisition event being performed, the processor 502 may need to startthe parameter loader 504 multiple times to complete loading of thenecessary parameter data from the parameter loader 504 into theprogrammable circuitry of the ultrasound probe via the timing sequencer514 and ultrasound element communication module 510.

The parameter loader 504 may be a hardware module operating inconjunction with handler state machines which handle the loading ofparameter data from the parameter loader into the ultrasound elementcommunication module 510 to be sent to the ultrasound modules of theultrasound probe. The memory 506, which stores the parameter data forprogramming the programmable circuitry of the ultrasound probe (e.g., ofthe ultrasound modules 302), may be loaded initially by the host (e.g.,host 204) via the host communication module 508 as part of signals 509.The data stored in the memory 506 may be raw binary data which may beloaded into the programmable circuitry of the ultrasound probe as is, insome embodiments, or which may be processed to generate desiredconfiguration data in alternative embodiments. The parameter data storedin the memory 506 may be indexed, for example with pointers, andtherefore need not be stored in a defined order or format in someembodiments.

The memory 506 may store, and the parameter loader 504 may load,parameter data relating to a variety of parameters depending on theprogrammable circuitry included in the ultrasound probe. The types ofprogrammable circuitry depend, in some embodiments, on the desiredfunctionality of the ultrasound probe, and thus the aspects of thepresent application are not limited to an ultrasound probe having anyparticular type of programmable circuitry. For example, if it is desiredto provide flexibility in terms of the types of waveforms generated bythe ultrasound probe, a programmable waveform generator may be provided.The exact type of waveform generator used is not limiting of the variousaspects described herein. In some embodiments, programmable delayelements, or a programmable delay mesh (representing a network ofmultiple delay elements) may be provided to allow flexibility in settingthe delay characteristics of the waveforms generated by the ultrasoundprobe. In some embodiments, variability in the receive functionality ofthe ultrasound probe may be desired, and thus programmable receivecircuitry may be included, such as programmable ADCs, programmablefilters and/or programmable modulators, among other possible examples.Non-limiting examples of programmable transmit and receive circuitry aredescribed in connection with FIGS. 6 and 7 to illustrate the types ofparameters for which parameter data may be stored in memory 506 ofparameter loader 504.

The host communication module 508 provides communication of signals 509between the ASIC 500 (and therefore the ultrasound probe of which theASIC 500 is a part) and a host, such as host 204 of FIG. 2. As anon-limiting example, the host communication module 508 may be a USBbridge module when the ultrasound probe is coupled to the host via a USBconnector, and the signals 509 may be of the type capable of beingtransferred over a USB connector.

The ultrasound element communication module 510 provides communicationbetween the ASIC 500 and the ultrasound element chip (not pictured)including the ultrasound modules, such as ultrasound modules 302previously described herein. Any suitable communication module may beprovided as ultrasound element communication module 510, an example ofwhich includes a low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) module. Thecommunication may take the form of data 511 which may, for example,include data 304 and data out 307 described in connection with FIG. 3,among other possible types of data.

The timing sequencer 514 controls the timing of imaging activitiesperformed by the ultrasound probe. The timing sequencer 514 includes astate machine in some embodiments and also includes a multiplexer 516configured with three inputs. A state machine may be used to control themultiplexer 516 in terms of which input to the multiplexer is passed,and data may be streamed from the ASIC 500 to the ultrasound elementchip. In some embodiments, the data may be streamed according to theAltera® Avalon Streaming specification (see Altera Corporation of SanJose, Calif.), although alternatives are possible. The trigger packetgenerator 518 generates a trigger packet which may be provided to theultrasound element chip to trigger an imaging operation. The read packetgenerator 520 may be a state machine that generates the read requestpackets which control offload of data from the ultrasound modules of theultrasound probe.

An example of the operation of the ASIC 500 is now described, althoughit should be appreciated that alternative manners of operation arepossible. Initially, a reset signal RESET is provided to the resetcontrol circuit 528 to cause a reset of the processor 502. One or morecommands, included in signals 509, are then sent from the host (notshown in FIG. 5) via the host communication module 508 to the processor502, instructing the processor 502 to perform a particular sequencestored in the sequence memory 512. The sequence processing unit queues532 queues the selected sequence(s) from the sequence memory 512, whichinstructs the processor 502 on how to configure and operate theultrasound element chip to perform the desired imaging operation. Forinstance, the load records of the sequence in sequence memory 512, whichare accessed by the processor 502, include pointers that reference theparameter data stored in the memory 506 of the parameter loader 504.Based on the pointers of the load records, the processor 502 prompts theparameter loader 504 to generate the needed data packets with theparameter data. The implicated parameter data is then loaded into theprogrammable circuitry (e.g., on the ultrasound element chip) via theultrasound element communication module 510 to operate the ultrasoundprobe. Examples of the parameter data are described further below. Dataproduced by and received from the ultrasound element chip is thenprovided to the ASIC 500 via the ultrasound element communication module510 and then to the data padder 530 and host communication module 508 tobe provided to the host.

FIG. 6 illustrates in block diagram form an example of a transmitchannel of an ultrasound probe including programmable components (e.g.,the transmit circuitry 104). The transmit channel 600 includes awaveform generator 602, a delay element 604, a pulser 606, and anultrasound element 608. One or more of these components may beprogrammable, such that operating the ultrasound probe may involveproviding such components with parameter data. For example, the waveformgenerator 602 and/or delay element 604 may be programmable, asnon-limiting examples. As a further specific example, the waveformsgenerated by the waveform generator 602 may be controlled in that, forexample, the frequency, amplitude, phase, and/or rate of change ofwaveforms generated by the waveform generator 602 may be selected bysetting registers of the waveform generator. Similarly, the delayelements 604 may be programmable. In the illustrated non-limitingembodiment of FIG. 6, the delay elements 604 each receive the waveformfrom the waveform generator 602, but in other embodiments the delayelements 604 may be coupled together, for example to form a delay meshin which waveforms may be passed from one delay element to another.Operating features of the delay elements such as the amount of delay,which direction to pass a waveform (e.g., to a neighboring delay elementon the right or a neighboring delay element on the left, forward, etc.),and whether to provide the waveform to a pulser may be programmed bysetting parameter values of the delay elements.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of the circuitry, both analog and digital,which may be included as part of a receive channel of an ultrasoundprobe (e.g., the receive circuitry 106). For example, the RX circuitry106 and/or signal conditioning/processing circuitry 110 of FIG. 1 A mayinclude the components illustrated in FIG. 7. It should be appreciatedthat the components of FIG. 7 represent a non-limiting example, and thatalternative components and arrangements may be implemented consistentwith aspects of the present application.

As shown in FIG. 7, a receive control switch 702 may be provided and maybe closed when the ultrasound probe is operating in a receive mode. Ananalog processing block 704 may be included, for example, with alow-noise amplifier (LNA) 706, a variable-gain amplifier (VGA) 708, anda low-pass filter (LPF) 710. In some embodiments, the VGA 708 may beadjusted, for example, via a time-gain compensation (TGC) circuit. TheLPF 710 provides for anti-aliasing of the acquired signal. In someembodiments, the LPF 710 may, for example, comprise a 2nd order low-passfilter having a frequency cutoff on the order of 5 MHz. However, otherimplementations are possible and contemplated.

The receive circuitry may also include an ADC 712. The ADC 712 may be,for example, a 10-bit, 12-bit, 20 Msps, 40 Msps, 50 Msps, or 80 MspsADC.

The receive circuitry may also include digital circuitry in somenon-limiting embodiments, including the embodiment of FIG. 7. As shown,a digital quadrature demodulation (DQDM) circuit 714, an accumulator716, an averaging memory 718, and an output buffer 720 may be included.The accumulator 716 and averaging memory 718 together may form anaveraging circuit 722.

The DQDM circuit 714 may, for example, be configured to mix down thedigitized version of the received signal from center frequency tobaseband, and then low-pass filter and decimate the baseband signal. TheDQDM 714 may, for example, include a mixer block, a low-pass filter(LPF), and a decimator circuit. The illustrated circuit may allow for alossless (or lossy) reduction of bandwidth by removing frequencies fromthe received signal, thus significantly reducing the amount of digitaldata that needs to be processed by the signal conditioning/processingcircuit 110 and offloaded from the die 112.

While programmable circuitry components have been described inconnection with FIGS. 6 and 7 with respect to the transmit and receivefunctionality of the ultrasound probe, it should be appreciated thatultrasound probes to which aspects of the present application may applymay additionally include programmable circuitry which is not specific totransmit or receive functions of the ultrasound probe. For example,timing circuitry and general control circuitry (e.g., timing and controlcircuit 108) may also be part of the ultrasound probe and may includeone or more programmable features. Thus, the memory 506 may store andthe parameter loader 504 may load parameter data related to these othertypes of circuitry as well.

It should be appreciated from the foregoing discussion that ultrasoundprobes may include various circuitry (analog and digital) and thereforethat various parameters may be needed to program a given ultrasoundprobe depending on which circuit components are included in that probeand what mode of operation is being performed. For clarity, a briefsummary of non-limiting examples of parameters for which parameter datamay be stored and loaded on an ultrasound probe is now provided.

In some embodiments, an ultrasound probe may include a programmablewaveform generator. Programming the waveform generator may involvespecifying one or more of the following: waveform delay; waveformamplitude; waveform duration (total length of waveform); waveformenvelope; initial phase of the waveform; initial frequency of thewaveform; chirp rate (if a chirp is to be generated); invert bit (toinvert the waveform); and coded-excitation (a bit enabling shifting ofthe chirp rate parameter for use with a coded-excitation).

In some embodiments, a programmable delay element or delay mesh may beprovided as part of an ultrasound probe. The types of programmablefeatures will depend on the specific type of programmable delay elementused. For purposes of illustration, it can be assumed that the delayelement is coupled to a pulser and includes a buffer or other memorywith multiple storage locations. In this case, examples of programmablefeatures of a delay element may include: write select, to select towhich location of the delay element memory to write data; read select toselect from which location of the delay element memory to read data;pulser enable (to enable a pulser to which the delay element may becoupled); delay element enable (to enable or disable the delay elementitself); and an invert bit (to invert the signal (e.g., waveform) beingdelayed by the delay element).

Components which operate as part of the receive functionality of anultrasound probe may also be programmable. For example, as describedpreviously, an ultrasound probe may include a DQDM module, a LPF, a dataaveraging block, and a sample memory. Parameters associated with one ormore such components may be set. For example, with respect to the dataaveraging block, parameters such as bit shift, word extend, andaccumulate may be set. Variable bit-width memory packing of the memorymay also be set.

As previously described in connection with FIG. 5, an ultrasound probemay include a sequencer (e.g., timing sequencer 514), which may at leastpartially control timing of the operation of the ultrasound probe.Examples of sequencer timing values which may be programmable include:time at which a trigger packet is sent; time at which the first readpacket is sent; the time at which the processor (e.g., processor 502 ofASIC 500) is interrupted to begin generating parameter data for the nextacquisition; the time at which an acquisition should end and the countershould be reset (e.g., to zero); and the time at which the parameterloader (e.g., parameter loader 504) should complete generating theparameter data.

The examples of parameters described above are not limiting in thatvarious aspects of the present application may apply whether thosespecific components and/or parameters are implicated by a particularultrasound probe or not. Also, alternative or additional circuitry andparameters may be used in other embodiments.

Operating programmable ultrasound probes may involve setting of a largenumber of parameters, as should be appreciated from the foregoingdiscussion. For example, fully specifying operation of the ultrasoundprobe may involve setting multiple (e.g., more than five, more than 10,more than 50, more than 100, between 5 and 200, or any other suitablenumber) parameters for each of the ultrasound modules 302. Consideringthat an ultrasound probe may include many such modules as described inconnection with FIG. 3, the result may be that thousands of parametervalues need to be specified for the ultrasound probe. Compound thatfurther by provision for operation in multiple different imaging modeswhich may require setting of different parameter values, and the numberof parameters and parameter values may pose a challenge in terms of theability to send the parameter values to the ultrasound probe from a hostin a timely manner and/or the ability to individually store all theneeded parameter data in the memory of the parameter loader. Thus,aspects of the present application are directed to techniques forreducing the amount of parameter data to be transferred from a host toan ultrasound probe and for reducing the amount of parameter data to bestored on the ultrasound probe and loaded into the programmablecircuitry.

According to an aspect of the present application, at least someparameter data may be designated and treated as global data to beprovided to all ultrasound modules of the ultrasound probe. As usedherein, global parameter data is that data which is the same for allmodules of the ultrasound probe, while local parameter data is parameterdata specific to a module, and which therefore may differ from theparameter data required by a different module for the same parameter.Treating certain parameter data as global data may reduce the amount ofparameter data to be generated and loaded into the programmablecircuitry of the ultrasound probe. An example is described now in thecontext of a waveform generator of an ultrasound probe, although thedistinction between global and local parameter data and the use ofglobal parameter data to reduce data generation and storage requirementsmay apply to other programmable circuitry of the ultrasound probe.

For purposes of illustration, it is assumed that each waveform generatorof the ultrasound probe (e.g., two waveform generators per ultrasoundmodule 302) can be programmed with respect to the following parameters:waveform delay; waveform amplitude; waveform duration (total length ofwaveform); waveform envelope; initial phase of the waveform; initialfrequency of the waveform; chirp rate (if a chirp is to be generated);invert bit (to invert the waveform); and coded-excitation (a bitenabling shifting of the chirp rate parameter for use with acoded-excitation). For at least some imaging modes, many such parametersmay have the same value for all the waveform generators. For example, insome modes, such as some forms of B-mode imaging, all the parameters maybe global except for the delay parameter, which may have a separatevalue for each ultrasound module or for each waveform generator in eachultrasound module. An example of such a mode of operation is atwo-dimensional (2D) imaging mode, although other modes may be the samein this respect. In some modes, all the parameters may have a globalvalue except for the delay parameter and the waveform amplitudeparameter, which may vary by ultrasound module. An example of such amode is a 2D imaging mode with apodization. In some modes, the delayvalue, initial frequency, and initial phase may differ by ultrasoundmodule while the remaining waveform generator parameters may be the samefor all ultrasound modules. In such modes, adjustment of the initialfrequency and phase may provide fine control of the delay, and thus suchmodes may be considered “fine delay” modes.

According to an aspect of the present application, a parameter loader ofan ultrasound probe, such as parameter loader 504, may generate and sendglobal parameters from its internal memory (e.g., memory 506), whilelocal parameters may be read sequentially from the sequence memory ofthe ultrasound probe (e.g., sequence memory 512). In this manner, theparameter data stored by the memory 506 and loaded by the parameterloader 504 may be less than if separate parameter values were generatedfor each ultrasound module 302 even for global parameters. As the numberof global parameters increases, the data savings increases as well.

As an example, in the fine delay mode, parameters such as waveformamplitude, chirp rate, waveform length, whether to invert the waveform,and whether a coded-excitation is to be generated may have globalvalues. By contrast, the waveform delay parameter, initial waveformphase parameter, and initial frequency parameter may have local values,which differ by ultrasound element. In some embodiments, the parameterloader (e.g., parameter loader 504) may read the global values from itsinternal memory (e.g., memory 506) and send those to the ultrasoundelements of the ultrasound probe. Subsequently, the parameter loader maygenerate and send, to the ultrasound modules, packets which areaddressed to specific ultrasound modules and include the local parametervalues for those ultrasound modules.

While some parameters may have local values or global values, in someembodiments a given parameter may have the same value for all but oneultrasound module of the ultrasound probe. In such embodiments, a datapacket for that given parameter may specify all ultrasound modulesexcept for one. Thus, only the one ultrasound module not specified mayfail to operate on the data packet. Further still, in some embodiments apacket may be intended for a group of ultrasound modules. In suchscenarios, the packet may specify a range of addresses of ultrasoundmodules, for example by including both a start address and an endaddress. The ultrasound modules having addresses falling with the rangedefined by the start address and end address may operate on the packet.To determine whether or not the packet is intended for a given module,that module may include suitable circuitry to compare its own moduleaddress to the range specified by the packet. Such circuitry may beincluded in the circuitry and ultrasound elements 408 of the ultrasoundmodules 302 shown in FIG. 4. Such circuitry may include, for example,suitable digital logic. This manner of operation in which a packetaddresses a plurality, but not all, ultrasound modules may beparticularly beneficial in ultrasound probes having a large number ofultrasound modules.

As previously described, in some embodiments the values of two or moreparameters may be grouped into a single data packet, and thus the packetmay include only global parameters, only local parameters, or acombination of global and local parameters. As an example, assuming anultrasound probe with programmable waveform generators which can beprogrammed to control, among other features, the waveform delay, whetherthe waveform generated is a coded excitation, and whether to invert thewaveform, the values for such parameters may be grouped into a commondata packet. This may be done, for example, to facilitate efficientsystem operation. For instance, assuming further that the waveform delayvalue is specified using 14 bits, the coded excitation control isspecified with a single bit, and the control over whether to invert thewaveform is specified with a single bit, a single 16-bit packet may begenerated to include all three values as compared to having to createunique packets for each of these three parameters. Thus, the system maybe simplified compared to a scheme in which unique packet types aregenerated for each parameter, a simplification which may increase insignificance as the number of parameters increases. With thesimplification comes a decrease in flexibility, since having uniquepacket types for each parameter may allow greater control over exactlywhat data is generated and transmitted.

In some embodiments in which multiple parameters are grouped into acommon packet, the grouping may be based on common function. Consideringthe example of the waveform generator delay, the coded excitationcontrol, and the waveform inversion control just described, those threeparameters share the common function of programming the waveformgenerator. However, the method of operating an ultrasound probe bygrouping together two or more parameters into a common packet is notlimited to grouping parameters with a common function.

The foregoing example also illustrates how a data packet may includeboth local and global parameters. Considering the example describedabove in which 2D imaging is performed with an ultrasound probe and thewaveform generator parameters are the same for all ultrasound modulesexcept for a difference in waveform delay, use of a single packet typeto transfer parameter values for the waveform delay, the invert bit, andthe coded-excitation bit would represent a scenario in which the packetincludes global parameters (the invert bit and the coded-excitation bit)and a local parameter (the waveform delay).

According to an aspect of the present application, savings in parameterdata generation and storage may be realized by taking advantage of thecharacteristics of particular modes of operation of the ultrasoundprobe. As an example, according to an aspect of the present application,a mode of operation of the ultrasound probe allows for specifyingidentical waveforms for all the ultrasound elements within a column. Forexample, the ultrasound probe may be used with an acoustic lens whichmay provide focusing in an elevation direction of the ultrasound beam.Thus, the ultrasound elements within a column may transmit identicalwaveforms, which allows for specifying fewer parameter values for theultrasound module including those ultrasound elements. For example,assuming an ultrasound array size as described in connection with FIG.3, sixty-four times fewer unique configuration parameters may berequired to fully specify operation of the ultrasound probe compared toif the ultrasound elements within columns of the ultrasound modules areused to generate different waveforms. More specifically, and as anon-limiting example, delay mesh parameters may be defined for twoadjoining 2×32 modules (e.g., two modules 302 of FIG. 3 arranged in aleft-to-right configuration with respect to each other in FIG. 3), andthen repeated for all such 72 adjoining modules, leading to asignificant reduction in needed parameter data.

According to an aspect of the present application, the number ofparameter values stored by the parameter loader (e.g., parameter loader107 or 504) is reduced by implementing a scheme in which the parametervalues are generated using indices of the columns and rows of theultrasound transducer array. For example, for some imaging modes, suchas a B-mode or a Doppler mode in which all the circuitry parameters mayhave a global value except for the delay parameter and the waveformamplitude parameter, the values of a particular parameter may differ bycolumn and by row of the ultrasound transducer array in a manner inwhich the variation by column is separable from the variation by row. Insuch situations, each row and each column may be assigned a value forthat given parameter, and the value of the parameter for a specificultrasound element may be computed by suitably combining the value forthe row and the value for the column.

As a non-limiting example, waveform delay values τ may be specified forthe columns and rows of the ultrasound transducer array, and thewaveform delay value τ for a given ultrasound element may be specifiedby a summation of the waveform delay value for the row and the waveformdelay value for the column. For example, the waveform delay value for anultrasound element positioned at row 5, column 108 may be equal toτ₅+τ₁₀₈ where τ₅ is the waveform delay for row 5 and τ₁₀₈ is thewaveform delay for column 108.

While a summation is one example of a combination, other manners ofcombining the values may be used, such as multiplication. For instance,waveform amplitude values may be specified for rows and columns of theultrasound transducer array and the waveform amplitude for a givenultrasound element may be the product of multiplying the waveformamplitude for that row by the waveform amplitude for that column. As aspecific example, the waveform amplitude for an ultrasound elementpositioned at row 5, column 108 may be equal to A₅A₁₀₈, where A₅ is thewaveform amplitude assigned to row 5 and A₁₀₈ is the waveform amplitudeassigned to column 108.

Using these manners of generating parameter data from a reduced set ofindexed parameter data values, the parameter loader may store lessparameter data than if a parameter value was to be stored for everyultrasound element of the ultrasound probe. The cost, however, is thatthe parameter loader in such embodiments should include suitablecircuitry to perform the combination function, such as adder circuitry,multiplication circuitry, etc. Other examples of manners of combiningindexed parameter data values include logic functions, such as OR andXOR functions. Suitable circuitry may be included to perform suchfunctions where desired.

Aspects of the present application also provide for a reduction inparameter data across multiple events. To form a single ultrasound imageframe, multiple events are typically performed. Each event may, in someembodiments, involve a unique parameter data set. Thus, the greater thenumber of events performed the greater the parameter data needed.However, Applicant has recognized that redundancies in parameter datavalues exist across events in at least some imaging modes, and that suchredundancies may be utilized to reduce the amount of parameter datarequired to be generated and stored by the parameter loader of theultrasound probe.

One such example occurs when delays are shifted between events. Forexample, in imaging modes such as B-Mode focused scanning theconfiguration parameters for a particular ultrasound element (or,alternatively, an ultrasound module) during a particular event may bethe same as at least some of the configuration parameters for adifferent ultrasound element (or ultrasound module) one or more eventsprior. That is, the waveform delay generated by the ultrasound probe maybe propagated or laterally shifted along the ultrasound elements of theultrasound probe. Thus, according to an embodiment of the application, aset of parameter data that may be longer than that needed to specify asingle event may be stored in the sequence memory and the parameterloader may start at a different offset within the sequence memory whenexecuting subsequent events.

According to an aspect of the present application, one or more countersare included in the ultrasound probe to facilitate reducing the amountof parameter data generated and stored. For example, a linear counter,such as a 10-bit counter, may be included in the parameter loader andmay calculate the waveform delay values for generation of plane waves.The counter may increment after each ultrasound element position tocalculate the appropriate delay values. In this manner, the delay valuesneed not be stored in the memory of the parameter loader (e.g., memory506). Such operation may be performed when generating plane waves in theazimuth direction. Similarly, a linear counter may be used for thelateral direction to set the read and write parameters of an ultrasoundmodule.

Counters may also be used in the context of generating three-dimensionalplane waves. For example, in addition to the linear counter describedabove, a second counter may be included to define a plane wave slope.This second counter may increment after each ultrasound module (or otherconfiguration unit) and may, for example, be reset after a given numberof configuration units, such as after every 16 configuration units. Thedelay value for the plane wave may be the sum of the values from the twocounters. In some embodiments, one or more of the counters may includefractional bits, for example to allow for finer delay steps to bespecified. These finer delays may be truncated or rounded in someembodiments. Moreover, it should be appreciated that counters representa non-limiting example of a manner of calculating the delays.Alternatives include the use of a central processing unit (CPU) or anarithmetic logic unit (ALU).

The aspects of the present application may provide one or more benefits,some of which have been previously described. Now described are somenon-limiting examples of such benefits. It should be appreciated thatnot all aspects and embodiments necessarily provide all of the benefitsnow described. Further, it should be appreciated that aspects of thepresent application may provide additional benefits to those nowdescribed.

Aspects of the present application allow for storage of parameter dataon an ultrasound probe distinct from a host. The parameter data may beefficiently and accurately loaded into digital programmable circuitry ofthe ultrasound probe using a parameter loader on the ultrasound probe.The parameter data may be efficiently conveyed to relevant ultrasoundmodules of the ultrasound probe using addressable packet-basedcommunication, and the ultrasound modules may be coupled together tofacilitate sharing of the parameter data. Also, the amount of parameterdata generated and stored on the ultrasound probe may be reduced bytaking advantage of various aspects described herein.

Ultrasound probes according to aspects of the present application may beeasily scalable and allow for simple verification of operation. Forinstance, aspects have been described in which (at least some of) thecircuitry of the ultrasound probe is grouped into repeatable modules.Thus, the ultrasound probes may be scaled easily by adding additionalidentical modules, without requiring significant re-design at the systemlevel. Also, verification of operation of the ultrasound probe may beperformed substantially at the module level in such scenarios.

The power requirements of the ultrasound probe may also be reducedcompared to alternative probe designs. For example, use of ultrasoundmodules configured into arrays (e.g., chains, such as a daisy-chain) mayallow for fewer wires between modules than if a multiplexer-basedapproaches were used, thus allowing for reduction in power. Similarly,the use of global packet distribution as described herein may be moreefficient than multiplexer-based designs.

The area consumed by the ultrasound modules may also be relatively smallaccording to aspects of the present application. For example, someembodiments described herein include ultrasound modules having a numberof registers which scales linearly with the number of ultrasoundmodules. By contrast, if multiplexer-based designs were to be utilized,the number of registers involved may be much greater, for examplescaling quadratically with the number of ultrasound modules.

Aspects of the timing operation of the ultrasound probe may also besimplified compared to alternatives. For example, timing of operation ofthe ultrasound modules may be synchronized within the ultrasoundmodules. Such a scheme may avoid the need for any global trigger wires.

Having thus described several aspects and embodiments of the technologyset forth in the disclosure, it is to be appreciated that variousalterations, modifications, and improvements will readily occur to thoseskilled in the art. Such alterations, modifications, and improvementsare intended to be within the spirit and scope of the technologydescribed herein. For example, those of ordinary skill in the art willreadily envision a variety of other means and/or structures forperforming the function and/or obtaining the results and/or one or moreof the advantages described herein, and each of such variations and/ormodifications is deemed to be within the scope of the embodimentsdescribed herein. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able toascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalentsto the specific embodiments described herein. It is, therefore, to beunderstood that the foregoing embodiments are presented by way ofexample only and that, within the scope of the appended claims andequivalents thereto, inventive embodiments may be practiced otherwisethan as specifically described. In addition, any combination of two ormore features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methodsdescribed herein, if such features, systems, articles, materials, kits,and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent, is included within thescope of the present disclosure.

The above-described embodiments can be implemented in any of numerousways. One or more aspects and embodiments of the present disclosureinvolving the performance of processes or methods may utilize programinstructions executable by a device (e.g., a computer, a processor, orother device) to perform, or control performance of, the processes ormethods. In this respect, various inventive concepts may be embodied asa computer readable storage medium (or multiple computer readablestorage media) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs,compact discs, optical discs, magnetic tapes, flash memories, circuitconfigurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductordevices, or other tangible computer storage medium) encoded with one ormore programs that, when executed on one or more computers or otherprocessors, perform methods that implement one or more of the variousembodiments described above. The computer readable medium or media canbe transportable, such that the program or programs stored thereon canbe loaded onto one or more different computers or other processors toimplement various ones of the aspects described above. In someembodiments, computer readable media may be non-transitory media.

The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense torefer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executableinstructions that can be employed to program a computer or otherprocessor to implement various aspects as described above. Additionally,it should be appreciated that according to one aspect, one or morecomputer programs that when executed perform methods of the presentdisclosure need not reside on a single computer or processor, but may bedistributed in a modular fashion among a number of different computersor processors to implement various aspects of the present disclosure.

Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as programmodules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally,program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, datastructures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particularabstract data types. Typically the functionality of the program modulesmay be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

Also, data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in anysuitable form. For simplicity of illustration, data structures may beshown to have fields that are related through location in the datastructure. Such relationships may likewise be achieved by assigningstorage for the fields with locations in a computer-readable medium thatconvey relationship between the fields. However, any suitable mechanismmay be used to establish a relationship between information in fields ofa data structure, including through the use of pointers, tags or othermechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.

When implemented in software, the software code can be executed on anysuitable processor or collection of processors, whether provided in asingle computer or distributed among multiple computers. In someembodiments, the processors described herein may be virtual processors.

Further, it should be appreciated that a computer may be embodied in anyof a number of forms, such as a rack-mounted computer, a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, or a tablet computer, as non-limitingexamples. Additionally, a computer may be embedded in a device notgenerally regarded as a computer but with suitable processingcapabilities, including a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smartphoneor any other suitable portable or fixed electronic device.

Also, a computer may have one or more input and output devices. Thesedevices can be used, among other things, to present a user interface.Examples of output devices that can be used to provide a user interfaceinclude printers or display screens for visual presentation of outputand speakers or other sound generating devices for audible presentationof output. Examples of input devices that can be used for a userinterface include keyboards, and pointing devices, such as mice, touchpads, and digitizing tablets. As another example, a computer may receiveinput information through speech recognition or in other audibleformats.

Such computers may be interconnected by one or more networks in anysuitable form, including a local area network or a wide area network,such as an enterprise network, and intelligent network (IN) or theInternet. Such networks may be based on any suitable technology and mayoperate according to any suitable protocol and may include wirelessnetworks, wired networks or fiber optic networks.

Also, as described, some aspects may be embodied as one or more methods.The acts performed as part of the method may be ordered in any suitableway. Accordingly, embodiments may be constructed in which acts areperformed in an order different than illustrated, which may includeperforming some acts simultaneously, even though shown as sequentialacts in illustrative embodiments.

All definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood tocontrol over dictionary definitions, definitions in documentsincorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the definedterms.

The indefinite articles “a” and “an,” as used herein in thespecification and in the claims, unless clearly indicated to thecontrary, should be understood to mean “at least one.”

The phrase “and/or,” as used herein in the specification and in theclaims, should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements soconjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some casesand disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with“and/or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., “one or more” ofthe elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be presentother than the elements specifically identified by the “and/or” clause,whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified.Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to “A and/or B”, when usedin conjunction with open-ended language such as “comprising” can refer,in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other thanB); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionallyincluding other elements); etc.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase “atleast one,” in reference to a list of one or more elements, should beunderstood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more ofthe elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including atleast one of each and every element specifically listed within the listof elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the listof elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally bepresent other than the elements specifically identified within the listof elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, whether relatedor unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as anon-limiting example, “at least one of A and B” (or, equivalently, “atleast one of A or B,” or, equivalently “at least one of A and/or B”) canrefer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including morethan one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements otherthan B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally includingmore than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionallyincluding more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including morethan one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc.

Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of“including,” “comprising,” or “having,” “containing,” “involving,” andvariations thereof herein, is meant to encompass the items listedthereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items.

In the claims, as well as in the specification above, all transitionalphrases such as “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,”“containing,” “involving,” “holding,” “composed of,” and the like are tobe understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limitedto. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consistingessentially of” shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases,respectively.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: an ultrasound probe,comprising: a plurality of modules including a first module and a secondmodule, wherein each of the first and second modules comprises transmitcircuitry, at least one ultrasound element comprising an ultrasonictransducer, and receive circuitry, and wherein the transmit circuitry isconfigured to control transmit operations of the ultrasonic transducerand the receive circuitry is configured to control receive operations ofthe ultrasonic transducer; a memory configured to store digitalparameter data including control data of the transmit circuitry andcontrol data of the receive circuitry of the first and second modules;and a parameter loader coupling the memory to the first and secondmodules; wherein the parameter loader is configured to provide thecontrol data of the transmit circuitry and the control data of thereceive circuitry of the first and second modules from the memory to thefirst module, and wherein the first module and second module are coupledto each other and the first module is configured to pass the controldata of the transmit circuitry and the control data of the receivecircuitry of the second module to the second module.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the parameter loader and memory are disposed on a firstsubstrate, and wherein the first module and second module are disposedon a second substrate coupled to the first substrate.
 3. The apparatusof claim 2, wherein the parameter loader comprises a linear counter. 4.The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus further comprises a hostcoupled to the ultrasound probe by a cable.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the apparatus further comprises a host coupled to the ultrasoundprobe by a wireless connection.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thetransmit circuitry of the first module comprises a waveform generatorand/or delay mesh circuitry, and wherein the digital parameter dataincludes waveform generator data and/or delay mesh circuitry data. 7.The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second modulesincludes a decoder configured to receive a packet of information anddecode an address from the packet of information.
 8. The apparatus ofclaim 7, wherein the first module is configured to operate on the packetof information only if the address identifies the first module.
 9. Theapparatus of claim 7, wherein the first module is configured to pass thepacket of information to the second module without operating on thepacket if the address does not identify the first module.
 10. Theapparatus of claim 7, wherein the first module is configured to modifythe packet of information and send it to the second module.
 11. A methodof providing digital data to an ultrasound probe, the ultrasound probecomprising a plurality of addressable ultrasound modules linked in adaisy-chain configuration, the plurality of addressable ultrasoundmodules including a first ultrasound module and a second ultrasoundmodule, wherein each of the first and second ultrasound modulescomprises at least one ultrasound element comprising an ultrasonictransducer, transmit circuitry, and receive circuitry, wherein thetransmit circuitry is configured to control transmit operations of theultrasonic transducer and the receive circuitry is configured to controlreceive operations of the ultrasonic transducer, the method comprising:creating a packet including both an address of one of the plurality ofaddressable ultrasound modules and digital data, wherein the digitaldata comprises control data of the transmit circuitry and control dataof the receive circuitry of the one of the plurality of addressableultrasound modules; sending the packet to the first ultrasound module;and using the first ultrasound module of the plurality of addressableultrasound modules to decode the address from the packet.
 12. The methodof claim 11, wherein the one of the plurality of addressable ultrasoundmodules is the first ultrasound module, the method further comprisingusing the first ultrasound module to operate on the digital data of thepacket.
 13. The method of claim 11, further comprising modifying thepacket with the first ultrasound module prior to sending the packet fromthe first ultrasound module to the second ultrasound module of theplurality of addressable ultrasound modules.
 14. The method of claim 13,wherein modifying the packet comprises altering the address.
 15. Themethod of claim 11, further comprising sending the packet to the secondultrasound module of the plurality of addressable ultrasound modulesprior to sending the packet to the first ultrasound module, andsubsequently sending the packet from the second ultrasound module to thefirst ultrasound module.
 16. The method of claim 15, further comprisingdecoding the address with the second ultrasound module and not operatingon the digital data of the packet with the second ultrasound module. 17.The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving the packet with ashift register of the first ultrasound module of the plurality ofaddressable ultrasound modules and outputting the packet from the shiftregister of the first ultrasound module to a shift register of thesecond ultrasound module of the plurality of addressable ultrasoundmodules.
 18. The method of claim 11, wherein creating the packetincluding the address of the one of the plurality of addressableultrasound modules comprises creating the packet to include an addressspecifying all but one ultrasound module of the plurality of addressableultrasound modules.
 19. The method of claim 11, wherein creating thepacket including the address of the one of the plurality of addressableultrasound modules comprises creating the packet to include an addressrange specifying multiple, but not all, ultrasound modules of theplurality of addressable ultrasound modules.